The Wei River flows through the middle of Changxing City, dividing the bustling inner city into the dirty southern city.

In the middle of the night, the breeze on the bank of the Wei River is gentle, and the willow branches hang down to the water, gently swaying along the quietly flowing river.

Xu Rui was wearing a black coat, standing independently on the shore, facing the lake in a daze, as if he had fallen into a daze because of something.

After a while, there was a slight footstep behind him like a civet cat falling to the ground, and Xu Rui's face moved back to his senses.

"Did you find it?"

Xu Rui asked.

Li Kuang came out of the night, nodded and said: "That's right, Hu Miao did secretly meet people here seven days ago, coincidentally, there was a fire nearby the day before, and this place had been sealed by the Five Cities Terracotta Division at that time. ”

"Use the fire as a cover to create the conditions for secret meetings? Or is the cause of the secret meeting a fire? ”

Xu Rui muttered to himself.

Li Kuang shook his head and said: "I have checked, it is just an ordinary fire, the improper operation of the kitchen of the nearby restaurant caused a fire, and there were no casualties, after the fire, there was no accident between the shopkeeper and the helper in the back kitchen, nothing suspicious." ”

Xu Rui nodded when he heard this, and asked again: "When did Hu Miao have a secret meeting with someone?" ”

Li Kuang said: "It's almost midnight. ”

"Midnight ......"

Xu Rui muttered: "After the palace door is locked, even if Hu Miao wants to leave the palace, it is impossible, he must have sneaked out in advance, it seems that the person who has a secret meeting with him is very important, and Hu Miao doesn't want people to know ......"

Li Kuang waved his hand and said, "Let's not talk about this first, how did you find here?" ”

Xu Rui glanced at the old mansion behind him, took out a note from his arms and handed it to Li Kuang.

"What is this?"

Li Kuanghu suspiciously took the note and looked at it, only to see that there was a strange pattern on the note, the pattern was a little rough, as if it had been rubbed from some simple carving.

"This is what Wang Shun secretly handed over to me today."

Xu Rui explained.

"What is this, and why did Wang Shun hand it over to you?"

Li Kuang asked puzzled.

Xu Rui smiled faintly and said: "Others may not know what this is, but it just so happens that I know, because I have been studying this thing for some years, this is the code of dark chess!" ”

"What?!"

Hearing the word dark chess, Li Kuang's eyes suddenly froze, and he lost his voice in shock.

Xu Rui seemed to have guessed his reaction a long time ago, and said lightly: "It won't be wrong, this should be the latest set of ciphers in dark chess, I haven't seen it before, but because the principle of the cipher has not changed much, it took some effort to decipher it in the afternoon."

This code means locking, and the dark chess should be locked on someone, or something, waiting for the follow-up action, so it will leave such a secret signal to leave a message to the same latent dark chess. ”

Li Kuang frowned: "But why does Wang Shun have this rubbing?" And why should you give it to you? What does it have to do with you finding this place? ”

Xu Rui glanced at Li Kuang and said: "Wang Shun is the first person in the inner court, he doesn't talk much, it doesn't mean that he doesn't know anything, it's not strange to have such a rubbing in his hand."

And when I got this rubbing, and when I recalled what he had said to me at the door of the south study, I always felt that he had discovered something, but for some reason he could not explain it directly, so he gave me a hint.

As for how I found here, you look closely at the edges of this rubbing. ”

When Li Kuang heard this, he immediately unfurled the open seal, carefully observed it by the moonlight, and said suspiciously: "The edge of the rubbing is a little rounded, like a gourd, is it ......?"

Speaking of this, Li Kuang was suddenly startled, looked at Xu Rui in astonishment and said, "This is something from the palace!" ”。

Xu Rui nodded: "That's right, this is the stone carving palace lamp, the one in front of Hu Miao's small courtyard!" ”

Xu Rui sighed and said: "The code is engraved on the back of the palace lamp, and it is only the size of two fingers, you can't find it if you don't look carefully, I also connected these two things before I had a whim, but I didn't expect to be really found by me."

One of the characteristics of the secret chess code is that it is systematic, and the code is usually set to complete a certain action, so there must be a reply left by other companions who support the action. ”

"So you followed those coded replies and got here?"

Li Kuang asked in surprise.

Xu Rui smiled and said: "It is true that some people want me to think so, but in fact this is not the case. ”

"What do you mean?"

Li Kuang asked incomprehensibly.

Xu Rui took out a second note from his arms and handed it to Li Kuang and said, "This is one of the codes I printed myself, see what the difference is?" ”

Li Kuangjie looked at the note, and compared with Wang Shun's rubbing, the two patterns were obviously different, but it was obvious that they were the same series.

Without waiting for Li Kuang to speak, Xu Rui said, "Do you think it's from the same group?" ”

Li Kuang nodded.

Xu Rui shook his head and said: "Actually, it's not, because although the patterns are very similar, the core message to be expressed is different, and it is not related to the previous lock." ”

"What does this code mean?"

Li Kuang asked.

"Willow in the middle of the night!"

Xu Rui said with a sneer.

"Midnight willow?"

Li Kuang was stunned for a moment, suddenly looked around, and exclaimed: "You mean here, now?!" ”

Xu Rui nodded: "This is an invitation, invite others to meet here in the middle of the night!" ”

Li Kuang exclaimed: "Could it be that Hu Miao saw this code before someone came here for a secret meeting?" Before, I thought that Hu Miao was locked by dark chess, but now it seems that since he knows the secret code of dark chess, then nine times out of ten, he has also lost his relationship with dark chess.

It's just that since Dark Chess has locked him, why would he ask him to have a secret meeting?

You just said that this code is independent of the lock code, is it because the two groups of secret chess infighting? ”

Xu Rui didn't answer when he heard this, but beckoned and asked Li Kuang to enter the old mansion behind him with him.

The gate of the old mansion has long been dusty and dilapidated, and it seems that no one has lived in it for a long time.

Because of the remoteness and chaos in Nancheng, it is not unusual for such a deserted mansion to appear for a long time.

But when the two of them entered the old mansion, they immediately noticed something different.

"Strange, it smells of blood."

Just walked into the old mansion, Li Kuang didn't snort and said with a frown.

Xu Rui smiled and took out a fire fold and lit it and stretched it to the ground.

Li Kuang's eyes suddenly froze, and he immediately grabbed the fire fold and looked around, his face becoming more and more solemn.

"See?"

Xu Rui looked at Li Kuang with interest and asked.

The flickering flames reflected Li Kuang's face uncertainly, and he nodded solemnly and said, "The outside of the old mansion is dilapidated, but the inside is spotless, obviously it has been cleaned."

Who will clean a deserted old house, the key is to clean the inside, but not the door, can only show one thing, that is, someone wants to cover up the things here. ”

Xu Rui smiled: "You want to say that Hu Miao didn't come to have a secret meeting with people that day, but to kill people!" ”

Li Kuang nodded and said: "After the prince's rebellion, Jinyiwei began to keep an eye on the crowd in Dongchang, and the spies only found Hu Miao entering here that day, but they didn't find anyone other than him coming out.

At first, I deduced that he should have had a secret meeting with someone, but the other party may have been too high in martial arts to be noticed by the spies.

But now, Hu Miao came to kill people that day, and the object he killed was hiding inside at the beginning, and he also dealt with the scene after the killing, so the spies didn't find anyone coming out! ”

Xu Rui nodded: "Everything seems reasonable, but you ignore one point." ”

Li Kuang was stunned: "What did I ignore?" ”

Xu Rui smiled secretly, and suddenly said loudly: "I have come as promised, Your Excellency can appear!" ”

Li Kuang didn't expect Xu Rui to suddenly shout, and his face suddenly changed.

And just as Xu Rui's words fell, a figure suddenly fell on the roof, Li Kuang subconsciously looked at his feet, and saw that the person was wearing thick-soled official boots, and his brows were furrowed again.

Xu Rui looked at the man and said coldly: "If you guessed correctly, the code of Yang Liu in the middle of the night that I found out later is not the code of asking Hu Miao to come here for a secret meeting, the person you really want to date is me, right?" ”

"What?"

Li Kuang was taken aback when he heard this, and looked at Xu Rui in surprise.

Before he could answer, the black shadow suddenly sneered and whistled, and in the blink of an eye, more than a dozen black shadows suddenly appeared on the roof of the old mansion, instantly surrounding Xu Rui and the others.

Li Kuang's face changed, and he could easily find that these dozen or so people were by no means ordinary cats and dogs, but all first-class masters.

Even if Xu Rui and Li Kuang are slightly stronger in martial arts, it is even more difficult to escape in front of such a lineup, not to mention that there is a man in black who does not know the depth in front of them?

Li Kuang secretly said that it was not good, thinking that today's incident was a conspiracy? His right hand subconsciously grasped the hilt of the knife at his waist.